The New Rules of Custom Publishing

Junta42 | The New Rules of Custom Publishing Not sure where to start? Here are some steps to kickstart you into social media mode. • • Identify and read the top five blogs in your core industries. At some point, start commenting and join the conversation. Set up profiles at LinkedIn (business networking), Facebook (social networking), Digg (social news bookmarking), Junta42 (business bookmarking) and StumbleUpon (content sharing/discovery). Read David Meerman Scott’s The New Rules of PR free e-book and The New Rules of Viral Marketing. Read IBM Global Services’ The End of Advertising as We Know It. Traditional publishers are slower to change because they essentially have two customers— readers and advertisers. In order for a product to be successful, both of those sets of customers need to be ready to take the leap and accept a new product (one engages, one pays the freight). Custom is different. Custom publishers are held accountable to the objectives of a particular content initiative. Marketing objectives are rarely accomplished through one product in a custom scenario. Most often, it takes an integrated set of distribution mechanisms to accomplish the marketing goal. Moreover, if a custom publisher only has in-depth knowledge of one or a few forms of distribution, how can it effectively guide and advise marketers in this ever-changing marketing environment? For example, in the past, a custom publisher could get away with only having expertise in a print magazine. Today, that same print magazine has a digital version, which may be a pure digital magazine or, most often, an online microsite or content portal for the magazine integrated into the client’s main Web site. The addition of a Web site requires expertise in not just Web development, but search-engine-friendly content practices. It also means that the custom publisher is responsible for traffic-generation campaigns, including pay-per-click advertising, ongoing search engine optimization and online audience development. And then there’s social media… The point is that the new rules of custom publishing have moved content marketing providers away from an expertise in any one distribution mechanism. Your product is content. Your distribution is any way possible. Success requires this expertise. If you don’t currently have it, find it through hiring or partnerships. • • This will get you started. The key to successfully understanding social media is using it. That’s up to you. Once you do, you’ll be able to properly advise your clients about the pros/cons of social media, and the difference between social media buzz and effective integration of social media. Those custom publishers without a deep understanding of social media will be left on the outside looking in. #3 Acquire Expertise in All Forms of Content They’re all out there, right? Custom magazine experts. Newsletter experts. E-newsletter experts. Video experts. White paper experts. Webcast experts. The list goes on and on. In the past, this focus on the product itself was perfectly acceptable, possibly even needed, as content marketing efforts were just beginning to be taken seriously by marketing professionals. Today, a publisher’s focus on one product can spell doom. Just look at the traditional magazine industry. Those organizations that moved the fastest into an understanding that their product was not just a magazine, but a process of exchanging content and conversation through any medium, are the ones that are succeeding today. This change is even more profound in custom publishing. Why? #4 Walk the Talk Traditional media companies and even many advertising agencies are strange when it comes to marketing. Strange in that they don’t do it. This www.junta42.com/match 7 http://www.linkedin.com/ http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.digg.com/ http://www.junta42.com http://www.stumbleupon.com/ http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/New_Rules_of_PR.pdf http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Viral_Marketing.pdf http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/New_Rules_of_PR.pdf http://www.davidmeermanscott.com/documents/Viral_Marketing.pdf http://t1d.www-03.cacheibm.com/industries/media/doc/content/bin/media_ibv_advertisingv2.pdf http://t1d.www-03.cacheibm.com/industries/media/doc/content/bin/media_ibv_advertisingv2.pdf http://www.junta42.com/match

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The New Rules of Custom Publishing

The New Rules of Custom Publishing World-Class Custom Publishing... Is Possible #1 Understand the Changes... #2 Be Active in Social Media... #3 Acquire Expertise in All Forms of Content #4 Walk the Talk #5 Position Yourself... #6 Have a Clear Value Proposition #7 Price Your Services... #8 Value the Role of the Project Manager #9 Use Questions, Not Answers... About the Author

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